An early morning fire on Wednesday left 165 Njega Boys secondary school students in the cold after it gutted down their twin dormitories.
The fire was said to have broken out shortly after 6.45 am when the students were in their morning studies.
When the huge flames were spoted by some of the students, an alarm was sounded forcing the entire school to congregate at a safe point as teachers made frantic efforts to put it out.
“As we continued to fight out the fire using all equipment possible without success, the Kirinyaga County Fire engine
arrived quite on time and saved the situation though the dormitory roofs had already collapsed,” said Karani Wangai, a neighbor to the school.
The students who were residing in the ill-fated dormitory however lost all their personal belongings including beddings to the fire.
By 12 mid-day curious parents had thronged the school to find out the fate of their children though luckily no casualties were reported.
The area County Director of Education, Margaret Mwirigi visited the school on learning of the incident and asked the parents not to panic as the issue was under control.
“All we know as at now is that the two dormitories have been burnt down including all the personal effects for the
students and we must leave the matter to police investigators as to what caused the morning fire ,”she said at the school.
The School Principal, Elias Gitobu said he was not in a position to comment on the matter with his boss having addressed the Media earlier on the same subject.
He later addressed the parents whom he assured that the affected students will still continue being in school as the Board of Management had agreed to buy them beddings and other items to cater for the emergency.
School fires dominated the media headlines last year with most of the fires reportedly started by saboteurs.
By Irungu Mwangi
